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GENTLEMANLIKE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Befitting a man of good breeding
Example:
gentlemanly behavior
Synonyms:
gentlemanlike; gentlemanly
Classified under:
Similar:
refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)
Context examples:
He did justice to his very gentlemanlike appearance, his air of elegance and fashion, his good shaped face, his sensible eye; but, at the same time, must lament his being very much under-hung, a defect which time seemed to have increased; nor could he pretend to say that ten years had not altered almost every feature for the worse.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The subject followed; it was in plain, unaffected, gentlemanlike English, such as Mr. Knightley used even to the woman he was in love with, how to be able to ask her to marry him, without attacking the happiness of her father.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
His appearance however was not unpleasing, in spite of his being in the opinion of Marianne and Margaret an absolute old bachelor, for he was on the wrong side of five and thirty; but though his face was not handsome, his countenance was sensible, and his address was particularly gentlemanlike.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
During this interval, even Adele was seldom sent for to his presence, and all my acquaintance with him was confined to an occasional rencontre in the hall, on the stairs, or in the gallery, when he would sometimes pass me haughtily and coldly, just acknowledging my presence by a distant nod or a cool glance, and sometimes bow and smile with gentlemanlike affability.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Your reproof, so well applied, I shall never forget: 'had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.'
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
She must admire him as a fine-looking man, with most gentlemanlike, dignified, consistent manners; but perhaps, having seen him so seldom, his reserve may be a little repulsive.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He told her that he had been impatient to leave the dining-room—hated sitting long—was always the first to move when he could—that his father, Mr. Knightley, Mr. Cox, and Mr. Cole, were left very busy over parish business—that as long as he had staid, however, it had been pleasant enough, as he had found them in general a set of gentlemanlike, sensible men; and spoke so handsomely of Highbury altogether—thought it so abundant in agreeable families—that Emma began to feel she had been used to despise the place rather too much.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Mr. Gardiner was a sensible, gentlemanlike man, greatly superior to his sister, as well by nature as education.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Tom Oliver is a very clever fellow, and Charles Maddox is as gentlemanlike a man as you will see anywhere, so I will take my horse early to-morrow morning and ride over to Stoke, and settle with one of them.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Mr. Churchill has pride; but his pride is nothing to his wife's: his is a quiet, indolent, gentlemanlike sort of pride that would harm nobody, and only make himself a little helpless and tiresome; but her pride is arrogance and insolence!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
